An academy for growth and guidance

Happy, Sad, Anger……… My thoughts

Continuing the journey of self, let’s have a peek into our thoughts. More often than not we believe that our feelings/emotions and our thoughts are the same. Seldom do we differentiate between the two.

The most prevalent statement one hears is: “I feel stupid?”, but stupid is not a feeling. If so, then what is the intention of the statement. Stupid is an action that you label in your thoughts. You may experience shame or powerless or sad or lonely when you say stupid. Having clarity in your thought process will enable you to aptly place your feelings. For instance when you say stupid, you may feel shame; you accept that you feel ashamed, guilty or abandoned then check for experience making you feel so. When the connection between feelings and thoughts are distorted, we end up making unwise choices. If you are aware of only your feelings, you are missing out on the holistic experience and if you are aware of only your thoughts, you may not be able to connect with your inner feelings.

Hence, emotions and thoughts go hand in hand to complete the cycle of experience. When you are in tune with both your emotions and feelings, you will link feeling stupid to any of the above emotion and alter your statement “ I think I am lonely because…….”, or “ I think I am ashamed because………”.

In any situation, you hold the power to make a choice and dictate the terms of your thoughts. Often it is believed: how you think or feel is beyond your reach but in reality you define the reach. When an individual makes informed choices, he/she is coming from a place of empowerment. An empowered individual chooses to respond rather than react and it is gained through the channel of awareness and acceptance.

In retrospect one can say that by changing your thoughts you can alter the way you feel. This enables you to control any situation. So the next you think something is not favourable remember, you are the only one who can make it favourable.

Often we feel “if the situation was in my control, things would be different”, well now you know how to be in control and do things differently. Initially this may seem tedious but eventually it becomes a habit and responding from that place provides respite.